Lawless Miami: Way Too Much Fun! There once was a time when, on election day, all saloons and taverns were closed until the polls were closed. Seems some citizens were known to sell their vote for a drink. And they weren’t Cubans! In addition, lots of deceased voters managed to…
Lead Stories *Distrust of modern medicine has led to the increasing popularity of therapeutic self-trepanning (drilling a hole in the skull), according to a June Chicago Tribune story. Trepanning activist Peter Halvorson said that drilling into his own skull 25 years ago brought him “a heightened, childlike sense of awareness”…
Inner City, Outer Beauty I’d like to thank New Times for Judy Cantor and Steve Satterwhite’s extraordinary article, “The People’s Gallery (July 16), about our inner-city wall paintings. I have lived in Liberty City for 30 years and have never read anything as uplifting as this article. Not one newspaper…
This week Daryl Jones is headed into combat — Washington-style. In yet another sign that Jones’s nomination to become Secretary of the Air Force is in serious trouble, Strom Thurmond, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has decided to reopen Jones’s confirmation hearing so that several members of Jones’s…
Ollie’s Nifty Fix-it Formula I read Kirk Nielsen’s article “Wheels of Fortune” (July 2) with dismay. If even a portion of what was reported about the Miami-Dade Transit Agency is accurate, this is a bad situation that needs to be fixed. Overtime pay may be a fact of life for…
Lead Stories *The New York Times reported in June that NASA recently successfully field-tested an oil-spill catcher that could have cleaned up the disastrous 1989 Exxon Valdez spill. A Huntsville, Alabama, hairdresser named Phillip McCrory came up with the idea to put hair clippings into mesh pillows; 1.4 million pounds…
Capitalist Tool in Alternative Clothing Has New Times become a tool of the union-busting establishment? Kirk Nielsen’s article “Wheels of Fortune” (July 2) seems to so indicate. He appears to have a problem with the fact that Miami-Dade drivers who have been on the job 30 years own nice houses…
Lead Stories *Michael Anthony Horne filed a lawsuit against the City of San Antonio in May for a wrongful arrest last year that cost him the ashes of his grandmother. When he pulled off the road to nap, a suspicious patrolman searched Horne’s car and found the ashes. He did…
Lead Story *In April the CIA debuted its Website for children, featuring games and gimmicks such as allowing kids to put disguises on models’ bodies and to maneuver virtual guards to look for explosives. Back in the real world a month later, the agency failed to discover that India was…
And Now…Heeeeere’s Robert! Robert Andrew Powell’s “Birth of a Station” (June 25), about the debacle known as WAMI-TV, was hilarious. It made me laugh, it made me cry. Reading his article provided more insightful entertainment than the dreadfully cheesy, hideously stale Ocean Drive TV, Kenneth’s Freakquency, or any other of…
Erratum Owing to a reporting error, staff writer Jacob Bernstein incorrectly stated in “If El Exilio Doesn’t Get You, Uncle Sam Will” (June 18) that Miami businessman Hugo Cancio violated the terms of the U.S. embargo of Cuba by not securing State Department approval for a Miami Beach concert featuring…
Lead Stories *In May a Plainfield, Connecticut, religious sect called God’s House filed a $200,000 lawsuit against the state’s Department of Children and Families for sending the young daughter of sect leader Sister Rachael to foster care. The little girl is very important to the sect: She is considered to…
As a former fighter pilot, Daryl Jones knows about rocky landings. During routine exercises several years ago, Jones twice in one day scraped the tail of his F-16 along the runway at Homestead Air Force Base, causing thousands of dollars in damage to his aircraft. On another occasion, Jones lost…
Lead Stories *In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in May, housepainter David Maas, age 31, was arrested and charged with the theft of eleven statues and figurines from several churches and is suspected of having taken eighteen others. According to police, he said he wanted to furnish a new version of Noah’s ark…
Claudette to the Big Man: You’ve Got an Angel Down Here, Sir Thanks for Robert Andrew Powell’s article about our local hero Brett Perriman (“His Brilliant Career,” June 11). As a former Miami Northwestern High student and a classmate of Brett, I am happy to say he is one of…
The Ballad of the Oppressed Is Not Sung to the Rhythm of the Oppressor Judy Cantor’s article “Isla de la Musica” (May 28) is both misleading and myopic. It subtly attempts to obscure the fact that the isla is grossly deficient in basic civil liberties owing to the rule of…
Lead Stories *While Joe Camel-type ads lose favor in cigarette promotions in the United States, ads in other countries are stepping up their use of distasteful sales images, according to an April San Francisco Examiner report. A Marlboro ad in Cambodia features girls around eight years old; in Poland, the…
Poring over the transcripts of the secret tape recordings compiled by the Dade State Attorney’s Office as part of its criminal case against former Miami city commissioner Humberto Hernandez, three things became clear: First, Hernandez’s former chief of staff, Jorge De Goti, has a vivid, albeit limited, vocabulary. Second, Evelyn…
The Music Will Blow You Away I would like to comment on Judy Cantor’s cover story “Isla de la Musica” (May 28). I really enjoyed reading it and thought it accurately depicted the way the music business operates in Cuba. I also read her previous article “Bring on the Cubans!”…
Lead Stories *In May Walter Scott Knieriemen, who admitted breaking into a woman’s home in Wheeling, West Virginia, was acquitted of burglary charges after a jury apparently found that he lacked criminal intent. A psychiatrist testified that Knieriemen suffered from a childhood-based sexual dysfunction that compelled him to grab a…
Last week I chanced upon Humberto Hernandez in the parking lot of Miami City Hall. After some small talk, the commissioner began complaining that he and his allies were being singled out by state investigators. Plenty of politicians engage in sleazy election tactics, he huffed. Why doesn’t the State Attorney’s…
Lead Stories *In April a federal judge in Hartford, Connecticut, threw out the defamation lawsuit against Princeton University filed by disgruntled would-be medical student Rommel Nobay, who claimed that Princeton’s having bad-mouthed him for lying on his application discouraged other schools from accepting him. Nobay admitted to having fudged certain…
